Over the years, the theft of vehicles has been a continuing problem. Various attempts have been made to discourage vehicle theft. For example, various approaches have been used that attempt to lock a vehicle and thereby prevent theft. In other examples, security systems have been developed and employed in vehicles. For example, when the vehicle owner leaves their vehicle, the vehicle is locked and the security system is activated. If an unauthorized person tries to enter the car, an alarm is sounded. In some previous approaches, a signal is sent to a remote site (such as a police station) so that the intruder can be stopped and the theft of the vehicle prevented.
Unfortunately, these previous approaches have not always been successful in defeating attempts to enter and steal vehicles. For example, the sound of activated security alarm systems has become so commonplace in many areas that the sound of the alarm is often ignored and the intruder can continue with their activities unimpeded. In the case where the car alarm transmits a signal to alert security personnel, various approaches have been used by criminals to defeat this security approach. For example, the criminal may simply drape the car in some material that interferes with the transmission of the signal to the police. Then, the criminal can break into and steal the vehicle unimpeded since a transmission made by the security system of the vehicle to an external security center will never be received by the external security center.
Controlling and regulating the parking of vehicles has also been a problem in recent years. The number of vehicles on the road has increased greatly in recent times, but the number of parking places has not kept pace with demand. Various attempts have been made to allow parkers to find open spots, but these attempts have not met with success because, among other reasons, an accurate determination of the number of vehicles in a certain parking area could not be made. This leads to the frustration of the vehicle owner and other problems. Additionally, illegal parking has become an increasing concern and previous approaches have been insufficient to remedy this problem.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.